Books and Ideas

Nation Poetry

The Board Meeting The Board Meeting

There was a meeting. They had an agenda. It was time to talk about loving a man in the supermarket, how that might affect sales of imported candy and levels of light in the produce…

Sep 9, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Heather Christle

Scam the Rich: A Conversation With Novelist Marlowe Granados

Scam the Rich: A Conversation With Novelist Marlowe Granados Scam the Rich: A Conversation With Novelist Marlowe Granados

On her new novel Happy Hour, con artists, and fiction that embraces joy.

Sep 9, 2021 / Q&A / Sophie Kemp

Why America Goes to War

Why America Goes to War Why America Goes to War

Money drives the US military machine.

Sep 9, 2021 / Feature / Andrew Cockburn

What Is Owed

What Is Owed What Is Owed

William Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen’s case for reparations.

Sep 8, 2021 / Books & the Arts / William P. Jones

In the Shadow of 9/11

In the Shadow of 9/11 In the Shadow of 9/11

Did the War on Terror put our democracy at risk—or reveal its flaws?

Sep 7, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn

Performances At The Ice House Comedy Club

Animal Dewormer as Covid Preventative Animal Dewormer as Covid Preventative

Joe Maga heard the anti-vaxxers say Dewormer, not the vaccine, kills those germs. Joe Maga died of Covid. Joe is gone. His body, though, remains quite free of worms.

Sep 7, 2021 / Column / Calvin Trillin

Paradise fire

How Do You Tell the Story of a Fire? How Do You Tell the Story of a Fire?

A conversation with reporter Lizzie Johnson about the aftermath of wildfires and the human cost of neglected infrastructure.     

Sep 1, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Emma Hager

Fantastical creatures inflicting pain upon the head of a man.

The Rhetoric of Pop Psychology The Rhetoric of Pop Psychology

Jesse Singal’s takedown of trendy science aimed at fixing human behavior in The Quick Fix reveals the limits of a certain strand of journalism.

Aug 31, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Gordon

Woman using her laptop computer

The Appeal of Ordinary Millennial Experience The Appeal of Ordinary Millennial Experience

Rainesford Stauffer proposes a different way to understand a generation defined by precarity and overwork.

Aug 31, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Mary Retta

young man in a suit working at the computer - 2010

Can We Live Without Twitter? Can We Live Without Twitter?

The platform has become an important space for political conversations; it is also run by a for-profit private enterprise and full of cruel trolling. Is there a way to have the goo...

Aug 30, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Bessner

x